Going from XP to XFCE or Mint/Cinnamon is far less of a shock than Windows8 or Unity. Chrome and Firefox work the same.

How did this bullshit get modded Insightful? An operating system is more than just the UI - it's the applications, it's always the applications. Going from XP to Windows 8 might take some learning how the new interface works, but at least the extreme majority of your programs you know and love will continue to work just fine. Unless you're using predominantly open-source or cross-platform programs to being with, moving from one OS to another is always going to be more of a shock than going from one version of the OS line to another. Only a Linux zealot would say something so stupid.

Most people aren't intellectual and aren't stimulated by learning and knowledge. Indeed, learning and knowledge is considered an effort to most people and only dealt with when necessary. Porn satisfies an immediate and instinctual desire. It's folly to believe that the majority of humanity is anything but barely civilized animals.

Disclaimer: I like myself some porn too. I just don't do it in a public-fucking-library.

I do have to agree with the fact that the latest build is indeed quite old, annoyingly so. But I'm not suspicious as to their reasons - I'm more inclined to believe that the developers are just slow. Without any additional evidence and only conjecture, that's the only logical reason for there not being another version since then.

I remember watching a NerdCubed vid of him playing Skyrim when he realised he could level up his character's fireball spell (or whatever it was) by continually flaming an invulnerable NPC at the begging of the game (the one which is in the gated and asks the player grab their initial equipment)

As for the games, I found them boring as batshit. Just didn't have the charm of depth of the Interplay games (Fallout 3 was a pale comparison to Fallout 1/2). But to each his own.

I'd rather have too much choice instead of barely any.

I'm well aware of that famous TED talk where the presented talked about the paradox of choice (http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html), and it does have some merit. But the way I see it, appealing to the masses means that those who don't fit the mold are generally left in the dust because it's not "economically viable" to cater to them. Keeping things open and keeping choice available means that there's something for everyone.

Choice requires a greater level of personal responsibility. You can't (and shouldn't) rely on some corporation to make all your decisions for you without being able to change them if they aren't suitable for you. It might be easier to just go with a monoculture of decision-making, but you'll pay for it once you realize that you aren't like everyone else.

The biggest problem I have with RMS is that he says a lot, but doesn't provide any solutions, or more specifically, solutions that are palatable for people to be able to accept that also allows them to accomplish what they want. RMS's solution to a lot of things is to use free software and only free software, yet most people have at least one proprietary tool that they need because the free/open-source stuff doesn't cut it (for me it's the Xilinx tools, MS Office at MATLAB, for others it might be Photoshop or AutoCAD). But RMS doesn't care if the free tools don't provide the functionality or quality of output you require, just as long as their free. Hence, the ideology doesn't work in practice and so people ignore him because his solutions cannot be implemented in anything but an ideal world.

Many of his solutions to problems also involve going without - don't use a mobile phone, don't go to most web sites, don't use most web services, etc. Most people don't want to go without because devices like smartphones are so fucking useful once you've used them for a long enough period of time, that giving up that capability and functionality WITHOUT A REASONABLE ALTERNATIVE (which RMS doesn't provide) means his message gets ignored.

I don't think RMS realizes this. People don't pay attention to someone who tells you to stop doing what works and move to something that doesn't, or just not use said thing at all.

Oh please, there's plenty of evidence that RMS has no understanding of social decorum. There's that infamous toejam-eating video on YouTube. And yet you're the one moderated higher than the AC?

He might have an important message but it's lost when he fails to understand the importance of the barest of personal appearance and hygiene.

What's the point of sarcasm if no-one can pick it out and it sounds more like a typical troll?

Then teach your kids bravery and risk tolerance, nothing wrong with that. But also teach them not to be too idealistic that they'll throw away their lives like Snowden has. Sure he'll go down as a hero, but his life is now completely ruined. That's not the type of life a parent should be encouraging their child to follow.

Hope you like the Orwell Land your kids are going to be growing up
in due to your support for and failure to resist it... Dad.

People are supposed to give their children freedome. Shame.

The problem is that when people like use resort to drama and hyperbole to prove your point, and try to guilt-trip people who don't feel the same as you do, then you've failed.

We ARE still a heck of a lot more free than some far more oppressive countries out there. We are nowhere near Orwellian oppression and to exaggerate the state of things does not constitute an intelligent discussion. You're speaking from the heart, rather than from your head. But that's not your fault - most people, on the Internet, on TV and in public, can't separate their emotions and think clearly and logically when discussing a topic.

Guns in movies never run out of bullets

Sure they do. Exhibit A: Iron Man 3. Stark and Rhodey are fighting some bad guns and Stack's pistol runs out of ammo. He even asks for another mag but Rhodey informs him that since their guns are completely different, he can't just use the ammo from one in the other.

Hey, if you're going to paint a brush of generalization over a topic and get a high mod score, don't be surprised if someone points you out on it.